A Portland cop says he was forced out of his job over a human-trafficking case.

The Portland Police Bureau’s former point man on the issue
of human trafficking has put the city on notice that he intends to sue
his former supervisor for gender harassment.

Sgt. Doug Justus, who
represented the police bureau on the Oregon Human Trafficking Task
Force for three years, abruptly retired last month and left his position
on the police union’s executive board (see Murmurs, WW, Feb. 9, 2011).

In a tort-claim
notice filed with the city Jan. 3, Justus claims he faced repeated
discrimination based on his gender from Lt. Rachel Andrew, his
supervisor in the bureau’s detective division.

“This discrimination
has occurred in the form of loud, repeated bouts of abusive and vulgar
language directed at my client along with the successful attempt to
force him back to the street on patrol,” writes Justus’ attorney, Kevin
Keaney, in the tort-claim notice.

“We believe Lt.
Andrew, the PPB and the City of Portland are engaged in these behaviors
in order to force my client into retirement,” Keaney continues.

The Police Bureau referred questions to the city attorney’s office, which has a policy against commenting on litigation.

Justus, a 24-year veteran, tells WW
that Andrew was assigned to the detective division in August last year
to oust him after Justus was involved in a controversial case where he
butted heads with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland.

“Obviously it was connected to that,” Justus says.

The case was detailed in a lengthy Dec. 20 story in The Seattle Times.

According to the Times
story, in January 2008 Portland police arrested 16-year-old Kelsey
Collins for prostitution. She told Justus she was willing to turn on her
pimp, who she said shuttled her from Seattle to Portland.

Justus turned the
case over for prosecution in March 2008, to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But more than a year passed without an indictment. In the meantime,
Collins’ family told the Times, the girl was offered no protection from her pimp.

In May 2009, Collins disappeared and hasn’t been seen since.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office told the Times the delay came because prosecutors were waiting on the police.

“That is a lie,” Justus says. “They had every [police] report they needed to go to a grand jury by April 2008.”